Aston Villa v Wigan Athletic Pre-Match Thread

[Grande Pablo]

A scrappy 2-1 - Benteke & Clark

[Proposition Joe]

If Baker and Vlaar are out, I'd play Lichaj at RB and Lowton in the middle.

Where is Hutton BTW?

[McGraths Dry Cleaning]

How massive is this game?? Nervy 0-0 until well into the second half - both teams concede the majority of their goals in the second half - Wigan 66% & us 75%. Last gasp winner for Villa.

[paul_e]

How massive is this game?? Nervy 0-0 until well into the second half - both teams concede the majority of their goals in the second half - Wigan 66% & us 75%. Last gasp winner for Villa.

we've conceded 36 in the league, 20 of those have been in the 2nd half of 5 games (southampton - 4, Man Utd - 3, Man City - 4, Chelsea - 5, Tottenham - 4).  We need to address the tendancy towards defensive collapses we've seen in those games.  In all 5 our central midfield has fallen apart so we need to have someone on the bench who can come on and bring some stability so we can make a change when the starters get tired which doesn't weaken us.

[eastie]

If Baker and Vlaar are out, I'd play Lichaj at RB and Lowton in the middle.

Where is Hutton BTW?

Forest I think.

[l_mckay]

A nice comftable 2-0 win......I hope

[DrGonzo]

A clean sheet please.

[Malandro]

Just to keep it cheerful, I'm going for Wigan to win 1-3. They are not as bad as people think and we are at the moment.

[onje_villa]

Firstly, if people really think we will lose at home to Wigan, who have 1 point from the last 293 then we are up the shitter and we may as well blow our proverbial brains out right now.

It's not that I don't think it looks likely it's just that I refuse to believe we can have sank so low as a club as to hope for a draw at home to them lot on such a poor run.

I think for the team itself, I'd look to get as much of our quality in as possible. No need to aim for solid on Saturday. We need a home win to restore some belief.

So in comes Ireland (I'm not his biggest fan but I certainly don't blame him for Spurs, thought he looked lively).

I'd have N'Zogbia in too if he's available.

Bannan & Westwood in midfield, they've played well together in the main and though Delph was one of our better performers yesterday and I felt for him, he's not up to it. KEA, we're all dismissing him yet pre-season he was probably our best player. He's been really disappointing but he clearly has talent and was excellent at Feyenoord.

If we need to get a grafter in there, sit Herd in there somewhere for now.

I think we need either Gabby or Weimann up top alongside Benteke who is surely suffering from playing too many games or believing the hype. The offsides are a problem but perhaps almost worse is his first touch has been very poor these last few games. Every attack broke down yesterday as he couldn't hold onto the ball and we kept giving away possession. Despite the defensive calamaties, I thought he was our worst player.

So please, let's pick a team to win this game and win it well.

If we go for it and lose then at least we know we're shit and we probably deserve to go down.

[darren woolley]

1-1 Draw for me Benteke scoring.

[MarkM]

1-2 defeat

[Lizz]

Bore draw, last game on MOTD. I'm bored with being optimistic.

[Shrek]

----------------Guzan
-----Lowton-Clark-Vlaar-Bennett
Albrighton-Westwood-Bannan-Carruthers
----------Benteke-Ireland


Just go for it. 442

[fredm]

I reckon this will finish 0 - 0 with Wigan's bright attacking football with their quality movement off the ball being negated by a MOM performance by Brad Guzan, whose series of saves keeps us in the game.

[N'ZMAV]

Let's go back to some sort of basics with this, and stop being too clever. how about this

Guzan

Lowton
Clark
Vlaar (if fit)
Lichaj

Albrighton
Westwood
Bannan
N'Zogbia

Benteke
Weimann

4-4-2